1. Field of the Invention
The invention-relates to fiber optic sensor systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a fiber optic sensor housing which is capable of introducing a desired initial pre-load. The housing arrangement allows for low pressure response in a fiber optic Bragg grating.
2. State of the Art
Fiber optic sensor technology has developed concurrently with fiber optic telecommunication technology. The physical aspects of optical fibers which enable them to act as wave guides for light are affected by environmental influences such as temperature, pressure, and strain. These aspects of optical fibers which may be considered a disadvantage to the telecommunications industry are an important advantage to the fiber optic sensor industry.
Optical fibers, whether used in telecommunications or as environmental sensors, generally include a cylindrical core, a concentric cylindrical cladding surrounding the core, and a concentric cylindrical protective jacket or buffer surrounding the cladding. The core is made of transparent glass or plastic having a certain index of refraction. The cladding is also made of transparent glass or plastic, but having a different, smaller, index of refraction. The ability of the optical fiber to act as a bendable waveguide is largely determined by the relative refractive indices of the core and the cladding.
The refractive index of a transparent medium is the ratio of the velocity of light in a vacuum to the velocity of light in the medium. As a beam of light enters a medium, the change in velocity causes the beam to change direction. More specifically, as a beam of light travels from one medium into another medium, the beam changes direction at the interface of the two media. In addition to changing direction at the interface of two media, a portion of the incident beam is reflected at the interface such that the energy of the beam traveling through the second medium is diminished (the sum of the energy of the refracted and reflected beams must equal the energy of the incident beam). The angles of reflection and refraction can be predicted using Snell's law if the refractive indices of both media are known.
By altering the indices of refraction of two adjacent media, the angle of refraction and the angle of reflection of a beam traveling toward the interface of the two media can be altered such that the intensity of the light entering the second medium approaches zero and substantially all of the light is reflected at the interface. Conversely, for any two transparent media, there is a critical angle of incidence at their interface at or below which substantially all of the incident light will be reflected. This phenomenon, known as total internal reflection, is applied in choosing the refractive indices of the core and the cladding in optical fibers so that light may propagate through the core of the fiber with minimal power loss.
Many other factors affect the propagation of light through the fiber optic core, including the dimensions of the core and the cladding, the wavelength of the light, the magnetic field vectors of the light and electrical field vectors of the light. In addition, many of the physical laws used to determine the ideal propagation of light through a wave guide (optical fiber) assume an “ideal” waveguide, i.e. a straight wave guide with perfect symmetry and no imperfections. For example, the diameter of the core and the wavelength of the light transmitted through it will determine whether the fiber optic is “single mode” or “multimode”. The terms single mode and multimode refer to the dimensional orientation of rays propagating through the fiber. Single mode fibers have a core with a relatively small diameter (2-12 microns) and support only one spatial mode of propagation. Multimode fibers have a core with a relatively large diameter (25-75 microns) and permit non-axial rays or modes to propagate through the core. The so-called single mode fibers are actually two mode fibers in the sense that there are two different states of optical polarization that can be propagated through the core. In an ideal, straight, imperfection-free fiber with perfect circular symmetry, the propagation velocity of light is independent of the direction of polarization.
A fiber with an elliptical core will have two preferred directions of polarization (along the major axis and along the minor axis). Linearly polarized light injected into the fiber at any other direction of polarization will propagate in two separate modes that travel at slightly different velocities. This type of fiber is said to have a “modal birefringence”. In a real fiber of this type, even ideally polarized light will couple into the other mode due to imperfections in the core-cladding interface, index of refraction fluctuations, and other mechanisms. Static and dynamic changes in polarization may occur along the entire length of the fiber. Over a given distance, the phases of the two modes will pass through an entire cycle of being in phase and out of phase. This distance is known as the “beat length”. A long beat length is associated with a small birefringence and a short beat length is associated with a large birefringence. Birefringent optical fibers are also known as “polarization preserving fibers” or “polarization maintaining (PM) fibers”. Birefringence is achieved by providing a core with an elliptical cross section or by providing circular core with a cladding which induces stress on the core. For example, the cladding may be provided with two parallel stress members having longitudinal axes which lie in the same plane as the axis of the core.
As mentioned above, fiber optic sensors employ the fact that environmental effects can alter the amplitude, phase, frequency, spectral content, or polarization of light propagated through an optical fiber. The primary advantages of fiber optic sensors include their ability to be light weight, very small, passive, energy efficient, rugged, and immune to electromagnetic interference. In addition, fiber optic sensors have the potential for very high sensitivity, large dynamic range, and wide bandwidth. Further, a certain class of fiber optic sensors may be distributed or multiplexed along a length of fiber. They may also be embedded into materials.
State of the art fiber optic sensors can be classified as either “extrinsic” or “intrinsic”. Extrinsic sensors rely on some other device being coupled to the fiber optic in order to translate environmental effects into changes in the properties of the light in the fiber optic. Intrinsic sensors rely only on the properties of the optical fiber in order to measure ambient environmental effects. Known fiber optic sensors include linear position sensors, rotational position sensors, fluid level sensors, temperature sensors, strain gauges, fiber optic gyroscopes, and pressure sensors.
One type of fiber optic pressure sensor takes advantage of the fact that ambient pressure places a strain on the jacket of an optical fiber which strains the cladding, thereby straining the core and changing the birefringence of the fiber. When a force is applied transversely to the fiber, the birefringence of the fiber changes, which changes the beat length and thus the intensity of light viewed by an intensity detector. Another type of fiber optic sensor utilizes intra-core Bragg fiber gratings as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,995 to Udd et al., the complete disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. Intra-core Bragg gratings are formed in a fiber optic by doping an optical fiber with material such as germania and then exposing the side of the fiber to an interference pattern to produce sinusoidal variations in the refractive index of the core. Two presently known methods of providing the interference pattern are by holographic imaging and by phase mask grating. Holographic imaging utilizes two short wavelength (usually 240 nm) laser beams which are imaged through the side of a fiber core to form the interference pattern. The bright fringes of the interference pattern cause the index of refraction of the core to be “modulated” resulting in the formation of a fiber grating. Similar results are obtained using short pulses of laser light, writing fiber gratings line by line through the use of phase masks. By adjusting the fringe spacing of the interference pattern, the periodic index of refraction can be varied as desired. Another method of writing the grating on the fiber is to focus a laser through the side of the fiber and write the grating one line at a time. Specialized fiber Bragg grating sensors can also be made from this process. These sensors include side air hole fibers with Bragg gratings, polarization fibers (PM) with gratings, long period gratings, pi-shifted gratings, chirped gratings, and gratings inside of holey fibers.
When a fiber optic is provided with a grating and subjected to transverse strain, two spectral peaks are produced (one for each polarization axis) and the peak to peak separation is proportional to the transverse strain. Spectral demodulation systems such as tunable Fabry-Perot filters, acousto-optical filters, interferometers, or optical spectrum analyzers coupled to the fiber detect the two spectral outputs. The spectral outputs are analyzed and the transverse strain is determined by measuring the peak to peak separation. Depending on how the fiber optic is deployed, the transverse strain may be related to temperature, pressure, or another environmental measure.
There are two shortcomings of this type of sensor system. First, dual peaks are only discernable in ordinary single mode fiber when there is considerable transverse strain, e.g. at very high pressure. Various structures are known for mechanically influencing the fiber such that isotropic forces are converted to anisotropic forces to produce birefringence and to magnify the effect of transverse strain on birefringence. Exemplary structures are disclosed in previously incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,131 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,218,661. Nevertheless, these mechanical structures can only do so much to enhance the sensitivity of fiber optic sensors.
Previously incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,180 discloses methods for enhancing dynamic range, sensitivity, accuracy, and resolution in fiber optic sensors which include manipulating the polarization characteristics of the light entering a fiber optic sensor and/or manipulating the polarization characteristics of the light exiting the sensor before it enters the light detection system. While these methods are effective, they do require additional equipment.
Most of the known structures used to enhance the sensitivity of fiber optic pressure sensors suffer from several disadvantages. They often require complicated construction with many parts. They react adversely to thermal changes. They are relatively large. They require the use of an o-ring which reacts adversely to high temperature. They only operate in one mode. By one mode, it is meant that the sensor operates either in a forward mode, a reverse mode, or a differential mode. In a forward mode, increased pressure causes increased strain on the fiber optic. In a reverse mode, increased pressure causes a decrease in the strain on the fiber optic. In a differential mode, the fiber optic is exposed to two different pressures and the strain on the fiber optic is indicative of the difference between the pressures. It will be appreciated that it would be desirable to provide a sensor which operates in multiple modes. Thus, as used herein, the term “multiple mode” refers to a fiber optic sensor which can operate in multiple modes and should not be confused with the term “multimode” used above to refer to a particular type of fiber optic.